Do we want the answers we already know? Or do we want to be loved into ever-expanding truth?
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee…” I’m grateful to know this prayer “by heart.” The grace of having this, and other, foundational prayers embedded in my soul is to the credit of my elementary school religious education teachers who faithfully tested us on our prayers and, of course, my parents who made the intentional and conscious decision to pass on the faith to me and my siblings. It is a great comfort to have these words emerge from within me during times of need.
There are times in life when it’s good and appropriate to learn things by rote and by repetition. In addition to learning my prayers as a young child I also distinctly remember learning my multiplication tables in 4th grade. And I remember learning scales on the piano and later on the french horn. All of these rote and repetitive tasks were helpful in establishing a firm foundation upon which I could later build more advanced knowledge and ultimately, apply them in unique and creative expression.
It seems to me that this is the precise place where Jesus and the eager seeker in today’s Gospel meet. The man, who we learn later already has many physical belongings, comes to Jesus asking how he can also receive an inheritance of eternal life. Jesus gives him the expected and rote answer of which most people of their day were likely familiar.
Was this answer satisfying for the seeker? Did it quench the thirst of his longing? Or did it merely assure him of what he already knew? It’s hard for me to know. The man replied with a statement of assent. He knew this information and had been following these rules since he was a child.
It is in this moment that Jesus, out of his love for the man, invites him to consider an expanding truth:
“Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, ‘You are lacking in one thing.’”
The man went away sad, unwilling or unable in that moment, to move beyond his firm foundation into the more advanced knowledge to which Jesus was leading him or the creative challenge of expressing this truth in his actual life.
This is a hard thing. I empathize with the disappointment of the seeker who had been so close to receiving the assurance of an easy answer.
But for me, I am learning how to move closer to Jesus, trusting in his loving gaze, even when his love unsettles and confuses me. Whether it’s in learning how to parent teens and young adults or discerning next right steps in organizational ministry, I hope to move beyond what-I-already-know-to-be-true and into the seemingly impossible challenges of expanding love and truth. Like Jesus’ disciples who were amazed and astonished at his teaching, I will trust in the security of my firm foundation in the faith as well as in Jesus’ words that, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God."
May it be so.
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